Friday Food: All By Myself

Friday 

Short version: Cheese pizzas, ranch dip, raw radishes

Long version: I needed to bake bread, so I decided to do it this day and use some of the dough to make pizzas for our first meatless Friday in Lent. One pizza had pickled onions on it, but they were otherwise just cheese.

Saturday

Short version: Chicken and pasta casserole, Holy's cabbage

Long version: I simmered one big package of chicken leg quarters to make stock, and then stripped the meat and used some of it to make a casserole. It was very like the one I made a couple of weeks ago with canned chicken and canned cream of chicken soup, except this time I used fresh chicken and made my own bechamel to make a cheese sauce. I still used corn and pureed calabaza in it, though.

The resulting casserole was much better than the overly salty canned version. No surprise there.

The cabbage was one of the bags of Holy's cabbage I had made in the summer with garden cabbage and froze. Everyone will eat it, and two of the four children really love it. It's handy to have in the freezer and just microwave as needed.

It did not make for a lovely plate, however.

I don't think even parsley would do much for this food styling.

Sunday

Short version: Meatloaf, baked potatoes, various cabbage preparations, chocolate pudding with cream

Long version: I used ground elk for the meatloaf, which I mostly made because I knew the leftovers would be good cold in the car for A. and the children when they left the next day to drive to Arizona.

There was enough of Holy's cabbage for those who wanted it, and then I also had half a jar of sauerkraut I heated up for others, and the one child who prefers his sauerkraut raw had that from the jar in the refrigerator I've kept there since last summer.

I made the chocolate pudding to use up some milk that was close to its use-by date. There are never any complaints about that.

Monday

Short version: Vodka and soup

Long version: I made some chicken soup to use up a bunch of things in the refrigerator--chicken stock and meat, sauerruben, one and half leftover baked potatoes, some of the milk--so that's what I had for dinner. I could eat soup for dinner and not worry about making anything else, because there was no one else here and I actually like soup and don't need to eat a lot of other things with it.

I even ate it out of a mug, because why not?

I also had a cocktail of peach vodka, lemon juice, and seltzer. I love the peach vodka. It sort of tricks my taste buds into thinking there's something sweet in the drink even though there is no added sugar. 

Can a cocktail be healthy? Sure.

Tuesday

Short version: Barbecue meatballs, honey-oat bread

Long version: I made the honey-oat bread to use more of the milk on the verge. Most of it I put in the freezer for when my family gets home, but I did eat a couple of pieces. It's hard to resist. And then I had frozen some meatballs from some of the meatloaf mixture, which I decided to bake while I was making the bread. So I had both for my dinner.

Wednesday

Short version: Salad

Long version: I had the last of some romaine hearts that really needed to be used up, so I made a salad with that, the barbecue meatballs, feta cheese, carrots, radishes, and pickled onions.

Healthier than a cocktail. 

Thursday

Short version: Popcorn and vodka

Long version: I drove to the city this day to do a few errands. Usually I'm in a rush to get home, so I don't do anything extra. This time, however, I had all day. So I went to a midday Mass at a lovely old church there, and then went to lunch at a restaurant recommended by one of my friends. It was a sort of New Mexican diner, I guess. It's in the old part of town and has been there a very long time. It was filled with local families, which is always a good sign. There I ate two stuffed steak and avocado tacos. They were delicious.

Good thing I had all day, because this took all day. I left at 10 a.m. and didn't get home until almost 5 p.m.

By the time I made it home and got everything put away, I still wasn't hungry. So I just made myself a drink--same thing as Monday--and some popcorn later. 

Is this what they call a "girl dinner"?

Refrigerator check:

Lots of dairy is a sign I've been to the store recently.

The rest of the family is coming home tomorrow, so my days of solo dining--and minimal cooking--are done now. Back to the kitchen for me!

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

An Unintentional Lenten Literary Theme

I've been on a roll with good books to read lately. This is not always the case. My reading sort of waxes and wanes. I'll go for awhile not having anything particularly compelling to read and then all of the sudden there are multiple books that I want to read.

Thankfully, I'm in the latter stage at the moment. Want to see? Of course you do!

A. buys a lot of books for the boys, especially the older two, based on things he would have liked to have read himself when he was younger. Or that he wants to read now. I'm not sure where he came across this one, but the title gave me pause.

Hmm.

Based on the title and the fact that I know how inappropriate books about the special forces can be, I thought I'd better vet this one before handing it over to my sons. I read the first half of it, which was actually very entertaining. By the time I got to the author's time in Rhodesia, I sort of lost interest--I'm not really very much for detailed military maneuvers--but I had read enough to know that the author was quite circumspect in what he chose to share about his personal life. I appreciated the delicacy with which he talked around the various situations involving women that are an inevitable part of any soldier's memoirs. Plus, he was very funny. Also a bit crazy, maybe, but in an adventuresome way.

Good job, A.

Next was a book that I bought for my sons, after seeing it on the shelves at the hotel I stayed at in January. I don't have a photo of it, but its title is Cold Sassy Tree, and it's by Olive Ann Burns. I had a copy of it for the longest time. I think it eventually fell apart and I never replaced it, but I thought the boys would like it, so I bought it for them. I re-read it last week and it really is an excellent book. It's set in a small town in Georgia at the turn of the 20th century. I've always loved Southern fiction. The narrator is a 14-year-old boy, and the author nails the character of a teenage boy coming of age. There are some things in it that I had forgotten about that make it maybe not appropriate for my ten-year-old quite yet, but the older two boys really liked it.

Good job, me.

And now for what I'm reading at the moment. 

I didn't plan this, but I apparently have a religious theme for all my books for this start of Lent.

I started reading the Catechism after I finished the Bible. I only read maybe five pages a day. Maybe more, maybe less, depending on what I'm reading about and how interested I am in it.

With God in Russia was written by a Catholic priest about his time as a prisoner in Siberian work camps during World War 2. Our priest loaned it to my older son, thinking he would like it. He did indeed really like it, as did his next-youngest brother. Both of them loved it, in fact, so I thought I'd try it. I was assured by my sons that there was nothing really disturbing in it, and indeed, it is remarkably drama-free considering the drama inherent in the man's situation. It's interesting to read older memoirs like this one (it was published in 1964), because the authors don't try to shock their readers like I feel modern authors do with the more salacious or disturbing parts of their lives. I'm sure this priest saw the absolute worst humanity could be in these situations, but that's not what he focuses on. 

Of course, I'm only about a quarter of the way in, so it could get way worse, but I don't think it will.

And last, the Janette Oke book was one I picked up from the book-sharing shelf at our local post office. I had I think every Janette Oke book when I was in middle school. I loved them. They're Christian fiction, sort of vaguely homesteady--set in Canada during their period of settlement--with some very chaste romance. My equivalent of a "fluff" book, I guess.

What are you reading right now? Anything you'd recommend for my next waning period?

Snapshots: The Spring Setback

We always have to have at least one snowstorm after it starts to feel like spring. That was yesterday.

 

Don't worry; the bulbs will be okay.

We only got a few inches, and we can always use the moisture, so that's fine.

I had just the week before received the new snow boots I ordered to replace my very old ones with a broken zipper.

I didn't know if I would even need to wear them until next winter, but I did.

One of the little girls who rides our bus turned seven last week, and I was given the care of her cupcakes on the bus ride to school. Her mom was very clever and made a number seven out of them.

Cute, but Poppy said there was way too much frosting on them.

I myself care much more about the taste of food than the appearance, which is why my "charcuterie tray" looks like this:

Tasty, but not aesthetic. Pretty much my motto.

And speaking of functional! I discovered something very handy when I made the pecan pie for Fat Tuesday. I prefer to chop the pecans for the pie, which makes for a more homogenous filling that is also easier to cut. Chopping nuts with a knife on a cutting board is annoying, though, because they're always falling off the cutting board. And then I have to wash a cutting board and knife.

However, the pecans can be put in a bowl--I used the bowl I had made the pie crust in--and chopped with the pastry cutter. That I had also used to make the pie crust.

Fewer dishes, and nicely contained.

My very tall eldest son had told me he could no longer easily move his arms in the altar server clothing at church. The biggest cassock (the under-robe part of the outfit) there was also about five inches too short for his six-foot height. So I bought him a new cassock. And it was very large and long.

This was the only place high enough to hang the thing.

It was a bit unnerving having this giant black garment swinging in our kitchen for a couple of days until we brought it to church. It fits well, though, and he's happy to be able to move his arms freely again when he's serving.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.